UnitedHealth Group CEO Stephen Hemsley has announced that the company will drop out of most Affordable Care Act exchanges for the 2017 plan year. But the company also said that it won’t exit the exchanges completely and will sell individual plans in a “handful” of states.
“‘We cannot broadly serve it on an effective and sustained basis,’ Hemsley told analysts and investors on a conference call. UnitedHealth has fully or partially exited five states so far—Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Michigan and Oklahoma, according to various news reports.
“The company sold plans in 34 states for this policy year and did not disclose which states it will stay in.” -Modern Healthcare

Florida is moving to combat surprise medical bills for patients who unintentionally receive non-emergency care from out-of-network providers and are balance-billed for the remaining charges that are not covered by their PPO plan. This law only affects PPO network plans sold in Florida, and these plans should already have some level of coverage for out-of-network medical care. Out-of-network providers will now be required by state law to accept the plan’s reimbursement for services, as payment in full. To read more, Click Here.

Kellogg has joined Mars, Campbell’s, General Mills, and other food makers in new labeling of their food nationwide, because of a Vermont-state law going into effect in July this year. Labeling food across the nation, regarding “Genetically Engineered” ingredients, is less costly than labeling for just one state law, since there is no federal regulation in place at this time. For more information Click Here.

The Subway restaurant company has chosen to continue moving forward with labeling food calorie counts on their menu although the gov’t announced just weeks ago that it has postponed the 12/1/16 deadline until further notice. Click Here for more information.

CMS has been granted permission to expedite their examination of the results of Indiana’s HIP plans not covering non-urgent transportation. Governor Pence has said there is no need for additional review, because this has already been independently evaluated by the Lewin Group. For more details and information Click Here.